


Love

by unlockthelore



Series: Magia [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inspired By Tumblr, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Original Character(s), Original Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:39:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26729815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unlockthelore/pseuds/unlockthelore
Summary: Ori hates this time of the year but a chance encounter could change his mind for the better.
Relationships: Ori & Ezra (Magia), Ori/Phi (Magia)
Series: Magia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945423
Kudos: 3





	Love

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [2020 Halloween Prompt](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/693847) by thursdayplaid. 



**Love**

It was the worst time of year.

Ori awoke to the rattling of plastic chains and overdrawn warbling boos over the radio on his bedside table, his head pounding as the newscasters took turns between peals of laughter. He sank beneath his comforter and tugged it up to his nose in hopes of muffling the sound. Wet sleep-glazed eyes rolled up toward the windows, still cool and dark despite it being morning. A bitter chill slipped beneath the cracks in its frame sending shivers down his spine. He thought if he closed his eyes for a little while longer then perhaps he’d wake in a better mood, less likely to grouch.

Three sharp knocks, each careening down upon his head like a boulder, shook his door on its hinges.

“Time to get up!” His mother called, her lunking footsteps echoing down the hall after she knocked once more. “Come on, you’ll be late!”

Ori rubbed his face wearily and tossed the blankets aside, goosebumps raised over his arms with hairs on end as the cold nipped at his skin. A sneeze nearly strong enough to cave in his chest exploded noisily and he sniffled, pawing at his chest to ensure everything was still in place. His blanket dragged across the floor, knocking over half-turned shoes and pillars of books, crinkling blueprints and papers as he drew it up into a drape over his shoulders. It bunched and caught on the henge of his bathroom door and he yanked once then twice, nearly stumbling into the sink when he lurched forward. Catching himself on the cool porcelain edge, a swift kick to the step stool tucked near the pipes set it in front of him and he climbed up to catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

His reflection stared back at him with glossy half-lidded brown eyes, reminding him of the soil in his mom’s garden after a sudden rainfall, an almost dusky black sparkling with water. Freckles covered copper-brown cheeks tinged red with a flush threatening to spread across his nose and down to his scowling mouth. HIs tongue brushed against lips cracked and dried, almost as if they’d become sandpaper. Ori groaned and clapped his hands against his cheeks, feeling the heat radiating from his palms and his skin. 

With a defeated sigh, he bowed his head then turned on the faucet and set to getting ready for the day. Steam fogged up the mirror and he shrugged off his blanket when it became too hot to keep on. Resisting the urge to douse his head with water, knowing he’d only be worse off once he stepped outside. 

It took a long moment before he cleared the steam and stared back at his face. His brows furrowed, lips pinched together. A one-sided stand-off with his reflection til he drew back his lips and grinned, his cheeks aching at the effort and the smile falling. With a sigh, he bowed his head then grasped the sink with both hands, keeping his head bowed as he tried to quell its pounding. The continuous _boo_ s did little to help. HIs head bobbed once then twice before he jerked it up up with another cloying smile. His reflection bared its teeth with lips pulled back and eyes frighteningly wide, cranium inflated with how he tipped his head back.

A sigh caved in his chest and his reflection mimicked the same. Leaping down from his perch, Ori shuffled across his blankets and rubbed at his cheeks. Smiling took more effort than everyone gave it credit for. He tugged on his trouser and squirmed into his undershirt, smoothing down the wrinkles then rubbing his hands through his hair. It took longer than he wanted to slip into his uniform’s mail and the pauldrons always caught on the ends of his hair, painfully yanking when he accidentally jerked his head to one side. His greaves were among the last he connected, wincing at the ache in his legs. With a little knock, the metal of his gauntlets creaked and he sighed. 

His reflection in the full-length mirror hooked onto the inside of his armoire was that of a young squire, prepared to take on the day donning his ridiculous bone white tunic and itchy chain mail beneath. Defeatedly, Ori gathered his locs up into a high ponytail and secured them in a bun, feeling the weight shift uncomfortably at the back of his head until he rolled his shoulders then lifted his chin one way and the other to adjust. Hopefully, the wards on the tie would hold for the grueling day of training ahead.

The newscaster’s booing thankfully ceased as an urgent listing of cargo reports filtered over the airways. Ori sighed as Scales and Tails was mentioned. Air travel was always a tricky ordeal where dragons, wyverns, and other manner of winged creatures were involved. Ori shrugged on a leather jacket, rubbing the faded patches along the elbows and collar. Perhaps if its previous wearer’s good luck still was sewn into the threads he’d be able to take some for himself.

“Ori!”

He slapped the ‘off’ button on his radio just as a report concerning two feuding water serpents from the district over began. Ori reminded himself to avoid that part of town as he slipped out of his bedroom, clunking and thudding down the narrow hall. Ori had always thought their home was oddly shaped. His bedroom door was at the end of a stunted corridor, one wall filled with wooden shelves ladened with provisions from fruits and vegetables to jarred items he couldn’t make out from their clouded glasses. Labels slapped around their surfaces with his mother’s scrawled handwriting as a warning. The door leading down to the larders at the other end of the hall shrouded in darkness. Without the fire sprites lighting the lanterns on the walls, it was impossible to see past a few ilms ahead of his nose.

The wall making up the other side of the hall was bisected by a wooden archway, a strip of warm orange light suffused past its doorless entrance. As he lingered near where the wall ended, he glanced over his shoulder and wondered how much trouble he’d be in if he decided to turn back.

Too much, he decided with a sullen sigh and slipped into the slightly humid chamber. Tucked off in the corner beneath another window sill with its curtains pulled taut was a wider bed housing one slumbering occupant, her hair splayed across the fluffed white pillows threatening to spill over the bed’s straw pallet. The blankets were tucked up to her nose and he could barely made out her face if not for the hearth’s roaring flames, smoke gulped up the chimney as his mother stoked the flames. He glanced toward the dining table with its short weathered wooden legs and placement sets for two. 

A chest tucked beside the cabinets, an old quilt laid over its top and perched upon by two buckets filled to their brim with flowers. He trudged past and offered his hand to the flowers, several mottles of golden light floating up to his fingers from their pale green petals. Accepting them graciously, he brought the light to his mouth and bit into it, managing to eat at least six before he heard a squawking cry of his name, “Ori!”

He sighed heavily and turned on his heel to face his mother. She wasn’t very tall, only a few ilms shorter than him but with her squared posture, soot-covered hands set on the white ties of her apron and her bushy sable-black hair pulled back in a puffed ponytail - she might as well have been seven feet tall. Her nose wrinkled, lips pressed together ina severe expression and he waited with dread for the resulting lecture.

Then as if a switch had been flipped, all traces of anger wiped from her face and she cooed his named gently, cupping his cheeks between her palms. “I know you aren’t happy about getting up for duty this early, but your mama can’t take you today, and the skies are too crowded.”

“But mum, can’t someone else…” His brows furrowed and he chewed on his bottom lip when she shook her head. “What about one of the older hands, they’re always complainin’ about young heroes anyway…”

His mother sighed, and he knew that sigh. She didn’t have an answer and hated it. 

“Do your best, try to make sure this _Chosen One_ doesn’t die, and come home by the end of the solstice in one piece.” 

Ori bowed his head and let her kiss the top of his head then returned one with a kiss to her cheek, hugging her around her thin sloping shoulders as she trembled like a leaf. He buried his nose in her hair, inhaling the woodsmoke and vermillion as she squeezed him tightly.

“Not the first _chosen one_ …” He muttered with a frail assurance.

His mother scoffed quietly then cuffed him lightly at the chin. “Won’t be the last..”

Ori smiled and let her rifle about in her apron’s pockets, pressing a few coins to his palm.

“Get you something to eat on the way, alright?”

“Yes ma’am…”

With another kiss pressed to his cheek, she stepped back and he trudged over to the dimly lit corner where the sleeping woman resided. “See ya later, mama..” 

A sleepy murmur groaned up from the blankets as they rippled around her,“Good luck, Ori..”, humming gently when he pressed a kiss to her forehead. 

Ori sniffled and stuffed the coins in the small pocket on his belt pouch, tying it tight with twine. He spared one last look at his mothers then tugged his jacket tighter around his armor as he stepped out into the cool early morning air. 

It’d only been two hours of walking when Ori dubbed the trip as impossible. The weather had been unforgivable, vying to find every open seam in his jacket and chink in his armor, sending shivers up and down his spine. Winds rustled barren tree boughs, their spindly branches swaying raucously, divested of their remaining leaves as they fell to the squash, green grass in wreaths of red and orange. Ori blew a sigh between his palms and rubbed them together, ignoring the scrape of metal and the clanking mail.

He walked along the pavement bitterly and sniffled every once in a while, trying not to so he could avoid the painful throbbing in his nostrils. Absolutely insufferable. Another sneeze rocked him forward and he staggered on the tips of his boots nearly colliding into the sign post. His breath hitched as he startled backward and peered around at the emptied bus stop. Well, that was fortuitous, he thought bitterly.

Behind him, his hometown could only be discern amidst the muted colors of nature by the faint flickers of lights from houses and the occasional city street lighting up as the land itself fought to wake. The hill overlooking the town was only occupied by a small smatter of huts, and farmsteads, their cattle likely still snoozing as the sun hadn’t even begun to peek over the distant mountains. Grassland rippled around him in rolling waves rippling northward and Ori sniffled, shaking his head vehemently and peeking up at the sign post with bleary eyes.

“A quarter of a bell?!” snapped Ori, groaning as he sank down against the sign post’s enchanted wood, feeling the runes scrape against the back of his armor. “I’d likelier freeze to death…” 

He drew his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them tightly, burying his forehead against the grooves of his greaves, not minding the impression it’d leave when he finally raised his head. Neck and ears exposed to the cold, he shuddered occasionally and cursed the hallowed. 

“You’re going to catch a fool’s death if you stay out here…”

Ori jerked upright. He hadn’t heard any footsteps nor did he hear anyone’s quiet breaths but when he lifted his head, standing on the other side of the wooden sign post was a man. Or at least he thought it was a man. He couldn’t see their features but he could make out the lapels of a trench coat and a starch white collar, shiny black shoes so polished he could almost see himself in their reflection. From how his arms angled, his hands had to be tucked in his pockets and his voice had been a man’s… hadn’t it?

He found himself questioning even that.

“Then why are _you_ out here?” Ori demanded, pushing up to his feet in an effort to stand tall against this stranger. Yet he found even at his full height, the man was likely a few ilms shorter than him, and seemed unfazed. He still couldn’t make out his face and leaning closer wasn’t an option. 

The stranger’s shoulders trembled, one raising then the other as if he were unsure which to shrug with. Finally, they both raised and his _head_ tilted to one side. 

“Setting up shop, saw you sitting out here.. not good for business…” 

Ori blinked at him slowly then looked around. “I didn’t know there were any shops out here…”

“There isn’t, not all the time.”

Ori frowned. “So you’re a traveling peddler… if you want to try your hand, then you should head down into town.”

“No need,” the stranger said, and Ori almost thought he was _laughing_ from how airy his voice sounded. “My clients tend to come to me.” 

The unease shifted beneath Ori’s skin and he stepped backward, unsure of how he felt from the stranger’s odd laughter. 

“Don’t worry, you aren’t one of my clients.”

“That is quite obvious.. I don’t even know what business you have…”

The stranger bobbed their head then turned on their heel, and even from behind, Ori couldn’t tell. It seemed as if there was a body within those clothes but the face was constantly changing. An indescribable bleakness he wasn’t able to put to mind and the longer he tried, the more enigmatic it became. 

“… What business _do_ you have?”

“The quick kind… but I wanted to see this first.”

If this had been any other day, Ori might have balked at that and prepared for a fight against a potential danger. He would have defended his home and his family from harm then apologized to his mother for not being able to stay safe. But today, he was struck silent and waiting. He followed the stranger with his eyes and hesitated as he nearly passed the sign post, glancing up to it then looking to the stranger’s back. They were growing further and further away and Ori took a deep breath and pursued.

His apprehension had grown with each second but once he’d stepped on the other side, his eyes widened. What had been nothing but pastureland remained but now there was a starlit road traversing through the greenery in sinuous trails. It glittered and shone almost too bright for Ori to lay eyes on. He shielded his face and turned his head away, grunting. A sudden warmth bloomed in his chest and he gasped, lungs quaking as breath rattled in them.

“Exhale, son…” the stranger said softly, “You need to exhale…”

Ori tried his best but his lungs had forgotten how to release breath. It licked along their insides, lighting him up like fire and he squeezed his eyes shut.

“Breathe now.. _breathe_ …”

On the stranger’s command, Ori took a gasping breath and coughed violently, his knees buckling as he fell to the grass. Strong hands supported him by the shoulders but when he reached up to shake them off, his flailing arm connected with nothing. 

“… What?” 

Ori stared up and found the stranger standing before him and with the starlit path’s luminescence, he saw that they truly had no face at all. Only smoke billowing out of the neck of their starch white collar and voids pooling out from their sleeves. The grasp felt strong and real. Four fingers curled around his pauldrons and a thumb pressing into the juncture of his shoulder. Tight and uncomfortable and real, but he was sure of what he was seeing.

“That’s it…” the stranger pulled away and stepped aside, hovering by Ori’s left. “If you didn’t breathe then they might have mistaken you for one of them…” 

Ori staggered up to his feet though before he could answer, a procession of _beings_ caught his eye. There was little else he could call them. He’d met changelings and lich, sparred against gorgons and ran furtively away from multiple types of undead — but he’d never laid eyes on beings transparent and translucent. Some wore clothes reminiscent of humans while others did not, some _appeared_ to be human and beastmen and all else but they were _different_. 

And they all seemed to be boarding some sort of bus. 

“What is going on here…?” 

“Visitation’s over…” The stranger answered, and Ori started from their voice coming from so close. “It’s only safe to travel to this side around this time of the year. Any other time, they would have to wait for the Hallow Hour…” 

“Hallow Hour…” Ori muttered dryly. A name that was far too close to the part of the season he hated the most. “… And what of you?”

“Hm?” Although he couldn’t see the stranger’s eyes, he had a feeling they were regarding him. Uncertainty of where to place his gaze led him to stare at the procession as they filed one by one onto the bus. “Are you not going with them?”

“No, I merely wanted to see someone off..” 

After a few seconds had passed with little said between them, Ori opened his mouth to ask who it was the stranger had come to see when a loud cheer swept through the clearing. It was as if a bottle of noise had been uncorked. Whooping laughter, hissing and chittering. Ori hastily turned around as those in the procession turned around and began to cheer and point and jeer. But it wasn’t him they were looking at, and as he looked back, he saw a young man dressed in armor - sopping wet and dazed. 

He walked forward as if in a daze. The gleam of his armor’s scales catching in the trail’s light and as he passed Ori by, he stopped then glanced back. A jawline hidden beneath rounded cheeks, big glassy brown eyes sightless but seeming to _see_ as they crinkled at the corners, a smile revealing rows of white teeth. Hair shorn to the scalp, nicks and bruises along deep bronze skin, but no less _happy_. 

Ori shuddered and took a half-step forward. “… Phi..?”

The young man ignored the jeering as he hurried forward and caught Ori’s jaw between his palms, bestowing a kiss to the top of his head. His fingers felt cold on his skin, and he could feel the water dripping from his gauntlets but leant into the touch. “How…”

“It’s the season,” Phi interrupted, pulling him into an embrace so tight that Ori felt as if the tears were being squeezed out of him. “You haven’t come and visited once… how’d you do it?”

Somehow, Ori knew the question wasn’t being posed to him and when Phi finally released him, he looked back at the stranger who raised their hands in a half-assed gesture.

“I just happened to be here.”

Ori could have remained there in Phi’s hands for awhile longer but he slipped away, grasping his hand and squeezing tightly as he pulled him over closer to the crowd of people cheering and congratulating him. There were pats on the back and hair ruffles, Phi laughing raucously while Ori watched him as if the sun had been lit beneath his skin. He was beautiful and radiant. Not sightless and cold.

A loud and droning honk interrupted the festivities and the passengers continued to file in while Phi turned back to look at Ori and smiled. “See you next year?”

“... Next year,” Ori promised, holding onto his hand until Phi had moved far enough that his fingers slipped from the cradle of Ori’s palm. He watched as he boarded, unwilling to tear his eyes away until the bus had started down the starlit paths taking its luminscene with every turn of the wheel’s axles until it was out of sight. Now, left with only light particles floating in the air like faeries and the stranger at his back, Ori tried to breathe.

The stranger arrived at his side and Ori knew it was him because the warmth in his chest grew and the hands on his shoulders returned. Once his breathing had steadied and the spittle and slober had been wiped away, Ori raised his head and sniffed. They separated and Ori straightened his armor then looked up to the clouded dimly lit sky. 

“Phi never waited around to be chosen…” Ori didn’t mind the tears as they rolled down his cheek, warm then chilled by winds kissing at their streaks. “He simply did what he had to. Did you know that?”

The stranger said nothing for a moment and Ori wondered who they were. How they knew that Phi would be here, and how he could simultaneously feel light and heavy at the same time. Finally, the stranger spoke, their voice seemign close and not all at once - like an echo coming not quite from the entity at Ori’s side. 

“Think you can go off to do your duty in good faith now?” 

Almost on cue, a loud rumble like thunder was heard beyond the skies and Ori turned back to face the sign post. “… Did you speak to my mothers?” he asked, attempting to clue into the mystery before it evaporated from his mind - replaced with memories and duty. 

The stranger sighed, and Ori could imagine them shrugging. “No, I was just in the right place at the right time…” 

“... Then thank you,” Ori muttered, and walked on, hesitating at the sign post then shifting to chance a glance.

“Don’t look back.”

Ori stiffened up then looked ahead stubbornly, taking another step forward, and the pastureland had returned. His bus with its door open and waiting with a warm amber glow and when he bravely glanced behind him, the stranger was nowhere to be found. 

Perhaps this time of year wasn’t bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really have anything to put for this. I just wanted places to put up the fanfiction I had for a series I was making, and decided to do it here. Thank you for reading!


End file.
